i. “Anyone who says that they’re great at communicating but ‘people are bad at listening’ is confused about how communication works.” (Randall Munroe, xkcd)

ii. “Well, when I look at a fetus in its 1st trimester, I don’t see much ‘human’ there. I see a blob of cells, looking like a generally mammalian fetus. It doesn’t think, it doesn’t feel – it doesn’t do anything I recognize as uniquely human. Heck, it ‘does’ so little that it can’t exist except as a parasite on the woman, and even as a parasite, it’s pretty pathetic. A tapeworm would look down on it.” (..my emphasis. From ‘An Abortion Dialogue‘, by gwern. For some reason or another I loved the last part of that quote. If you’re reading this right now, you’ve come a long way.)

iii. “A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.” (Alexander Pope)

iv. “Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.)

v. “Calvin: ‘Dad, are you vicariously living through me in the hope that my accomplishments will validate your mediocre life and in some way compensate for all of the opportunities you botched?’
Dad: ‘If I were, you can bet I’d be re-evaluating my strategy.’
Calvin: ‘Mom, Dad keeps insulting me.'” (Calvin and Hobbes)

vi. “Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.” (Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues)

vii. “The things we know best are the things we haven’t been taught.” (-ll-)

viii. “Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for.” (-ll-)

x. “Arguing an inconsequential point diminishes your status. You lose, even if you win. […] Noticing an error does not create an obligation to correct that error. When the error is of little consequence, let it go.” (‘Mark M’, here)

xii. “When we are not engaged in thinking about some definite problem, we usually spend about 95 percent of our time thinking about ourselves. Now, if we stop thinking about ourselves for a while and begin to think of the other person’s good points, we won’t have to resort to flattery so cheap and false that it can be spotted almost before it is out of the mouth,
One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence is appreciation, Somehow, we neglect to praise our son or daughter when he or she brings home a good report card, and we fail to encourage our children when they first succeed in baking a cake or building a birdhouse. […] In our interpersonal relations we should never forget that all our associates are human beings and hunger for appreciation. It is the legal tender that all souls enjoy.” (from How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie)

xiii. “Remember that other people may be totally wrong. But they don’t think so. Don’t condemn them. Any fool can do that. Try to understand them.” (-ll-)

xiv. Hobbes: “‘Are you making any resolutions for the new year?’
Calvin: ‘Nope! I want everything to stay the same as it was this year.’
Hobbes: ‘Everything?’
Calvin: ‘Right. This year was lousy, but at least it’s familiar.’
Calvin: ‘I hate change! It’s too disruptive! When things are different you have to think about the change and deal with it! I like things to stay the same, so I can take everything for granted!’
Calvin: ‘Besides, things keep changing for the worse! The longer I live, the more complicated everything gets! I say let’s stop here before life gets any harder!’
Calvin: ‘From now on, no more change!’
Calvin (10 seconds later): ‘I’m bored. Let’s do something different.’
Hobbes: ‘Some things don’t change.'”

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About me/this blog

I am a student of economics from Denmark.

This blog is mainly a site where I keep track of and share some of the stuff I read and learn. Only a small subset of the posts on this blog deal with economics – I have diverse interests, and as the category cloud in the sidebar below illustrates this blog contains posts about all kinds of stuff: Mathematics, physics, statistics, geology, geography, health care and medicine, psychology, evolutionary biology, genetics, history, anthropology, archaeology, chess, …

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